The Presidential Debate: The Resident vs. The President

Salem-Keizer Scoring Guide
John Kerry
19
George Bush
12

Bush vs. Kerry

John Kerry’s argument was better presented, supported and delivered than George Bush’s. The senator delivered his ideas on foreign policy clearly and supported them with factual evidence and historical references. All though he started off the debate scared by Bush’s incumbency, the audience found him relaxed less than ten minutes in. Kerry fell slightly short of my standards when he failed to use vivid vocabulary, but made up for his error by rapidly putting a halt to the president’s insistent hedging. Bush avoided answering pointed questions and intellectually supporting his ideology, equivocating by falling back on his clichéd American value speeches. Our president also provided his trademark circular argument, scolding Kerry’s campaign for scaring troops in Iraq, and misused a ninth-grade vocabulary word: “vociferously.”